First Lady Jill Biden visits a COVID-19 vaccination center.Photo: MANDEL NGAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Her visit to the Southwest is meant to highlightthe Biden administration’s effortsto get all Americans vaccinated, the White House said.
More than half of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, with more than a third of U.S. adults now fully vaccinated, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention.
Addressing vaccine hesitancy has been a major focus of the rollout at the federal and local level.
According to aNew York Timestracker, roughly 569,000 people have died from the virus in the U.S. so far, though newly reported cases have continued a downward trend nationwide.
“So I’ve had this shot and it doesn’t hurt. I promise,” the first lady asked a woman awaiting her first shot on Wednesday at Albuquerque’s First Choice Community Healthcare, South Valley Medical Center, which Biden toured before meeting with patients.
“Normally I’m scared of them!” Biden told the woman. “I have to say, it’s so fast. Are you a little scared?”
After the woman replied that she was, the first lady offered a small distraction.
Dr. Jill Biden.MANDEL NGAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
“Do you want me to come stand with you? I’ll stay with her,” Dr. Biden said as the woman turned away from the needle. “I can’t look either. Look at me. It doesn’t hurt. Really. It’s mostly in your head.”
Dr. Jill Biden (right) helps distract a patient getting a COVID-19 vaccine.MANDEL NGAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Like the patient before her, Galvez watched the first lady while getting the vaccine, and the two elbow-bumped once it was over.“Bring your friends back and tell them how easy it was,” Biden said.
According to the White House, the first lady is scheduled to teach her writing class remotely on Thursday morning before visiting the Navajo Nation in Window Rock, Arizona.
Biden and her husband, PresidentJoe Biden, received their first doses of thePfizer-BioNTech novel coronavirus vaccinein December, with the lattergetting his shoton live television from Delaware’s ChristianaCare Hospital.
source: people.com
